


Dreaming in the White Space

by stardropdream (orphan_account)



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She hates it when he treats her like his daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreaming in the White Space

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ July 23, 2011.

He finds her just as she’s lit of a cigarette. They spend a grand total of three seconds staring at each other before Kotetsu frowns.   
  
“You shouldn’t be smoking,” he chastises.   
  
She huffs, inhales, and blows out a long stream of blue smoke. Defiant. But she’s blushing, too, ashamed that he’s caught her, and, even worse, that he’s treating her like a kid.   
  
“No one’s making you watch,” she says, mutters really, and she hates that she doesn’t sound as defiant as she wants—doesn’t sound as defiant as she feels. She sounds more guilty than anything else, like a child caught doing something she shouldn’t (and she’s not a child—shouldn’t be viewed as a child anymore).   
  
She leans against the wall of the alleyway, outside the training building. The other heroes must be inside, working hard. Karina just needed a break. Leave it to Kotetsu to find her. Of course he’d find her—how could it be any other way?   
  
She inhales sharply and then Kotetsu is there, reaching out, as if he’s going to physically take the cigarette from her.   
  
Her eyes flare open and she darts away, ducking from his hand—but not quickly enough because his knuckles brush her cheek jus so and it’s completely innocent and Kotetsu won’t even be aware of it, but it sends the butterflies shuttering down her stomach, her heart beating a harsh pulse against her ribcage.  
  
“Don’t!” she shouts, flustered, face red.   
  
“You’re too young to smoke,” he says, and does sound concerned. “Think of what it’ll do to your pretty face?”  
  
“Stop acting like you’re my father,” she snaps, harshly, hating it—hating it _so much_ that he can only see her as a child, that she wants him to see her as a woman. She swallows thickly. “Just stop.”  
  
He looks like she’s smacked him, but she doesn’t regret it. She doesn’t want him to look at her like she’s his daughter, like he can only see her as a tiny little girl when she’s nearly a woman and she’s hopelessly, completely in love with him. She loves him so much that it’s constricting, oppressing—she loves him more than anyone dares to love someone, and the thought terrifies because even if she hates it, in many ways she is a kid and she shouldn’t feel this way about someone, not yet, not now, and certainly not him. Since when did it become him—  
  
She leans back against the wall, avoiding eyes with Kotetsu. She can’t stand to see that kicked puppy look.   
  
It doesn’t last long, though, because Kotetsu is laughing, a little awkwardly—but so endearing, so sincere—and saying, “What can I do to convince you to put that out?”   
  
Karina closes her eyes, envisions asking for a kiss, for Kotetsu pressing her up against the wall, kissing her on the mouth, soft and open. She envisions Kotetsu caging her in, his body towering over her, wide and warm. She envisions curling her arms around his neck, holding tight, kissing him with all she has an all she’s worth, hitching her leg up to curl around his hip—  
  
She blushes even more and shakes her head a little. When she opens her eyes, Kotetsu is looking at her, smiling, completely unaware of the thoughts running through Karina’s head.   
  
Her right eye twitches. “Who says you can convince me to stop?”  
  
He shrugs one shoulder.   
  
She sighs out, because what she wants is something he wouldn’t give her—and it’s not something she would ever ask him. Not when he’s looking at her so hopefully, so earnestly.   
  
“Buy me beer,” she decides.  
  
His jaw drops, and Karina almost laughs. “But that isn’t what I meant!”   
  
“Hm,” Karina says, acting nonchalant as she pulls out another cigarette from its pack, fishing in the pocket of her vest to find her lighter.  
  
He takes this as the threat it is and, flustered, he shakes his hands at her. “Okay, okay. But on one condition.”  
  
“Hm?” she asks around the unfinished cigarette pressing up against her tongue.   
  
“You have to drink them with me,” he says, jabbing a thumb at himself. “So I can keep you in line.”  
  
Again, acting like a father—a deluded father, now, but still a father. She scowls, and Kotetsu takes this as a victory, positive she’ll ask for something else.   
  
Instead, she drops the lit cigarette to the ground, and grinds it with her heel.   
  
“Fine,” she says, and Kotetsu looks taken aback by her agreement. “I’ll drink with you.”  
  
She gives him a look as he flusters around, undoubtedly trying to think of a reason why their agreement should now be disputed and shaken away.   
  
“I’m waiting,” she says.  
  
“Now?” he asks.  
  
She blushes further, and nods.   
  
She only has to wait fifteen minutes before Kotetsu comes back to her spot in the alley, humming cheerfully to himself and swinging a plastic bag, where sweating cans of beer clack together in a musical accompaniment.   
  
“Let’s go to the park to drink these,” Kotetsu says with a beaming smile. “Much nicer than here.”   
  
She nods her head, curt, and follows him to the park. They find a bench to sit on and Kotetsu cracks the first can, taking a long drink from it. Karina nurses her slowly—she’s never really liked the taste of alcohol, but she likes it a lot more when she’s sitting next to Kotetsu, feeling the warmth of his body, envisioning him putting an arm around her shoulders and holding her close, pushing his nose into her hair and smiling against her temple.   
  
She tries to banish these thoughts. She crosses her legs and takes a sip of beer.


End file.
